'I am my sister's voice': Family of slain Brockton teen outraged after grave vandalized

BROCKTON — On April 25, 2009, a Brockton family was shattered after beloved 16-year-old Chantel 'Shy Shy' LaMay Matiyosus was murdered at a baby shower.

On the fourteenth anniversary of Chantel's death, her family said her headstone at Calvary Cemetery was defaced.

"She's still unable to rest in eternal peace after someone defaced her headstone with pink paint," her mother, Stephanie Matiyosus said.

Stephanie, who remembers her daughter as "an extremely compassionate, animal-loving, empathetic person," said "the family has had a tough time coping with losing Chantel."

Chantel had just gotten her learner's permit and was working at a clothing boutique in Abington when she was killed.

"She always wanted to be a real estate agent and to build houses," Stephanie said. "But that was all taken away from her."

In the years since her murder, Chantel's older sister Tiffany Andrade said she has "found poop, bottles of pee, broken glass and alcohol bottles and other awful things," at her sister's gravesite.

Then, on Tuesday afternoon, April 25, 2023, the fourteenth anniversary of Chantel's death, the family found her headstone covered in pink paint.

"It's so disrespectful that someone would vandalize her," Andrade said. "And it's been 14 years, please give us the time to heal and give her the space to rest in peace."

Andrade said she and her siblings spent hours on Tuesday trying to remove the paint from their sister's headstone. On Wednesday, April 26, Andrade started a GoFundMe hoping to get the help of the community to pay to "remove Chantel from the cemetery and to cremate her, so that she can rest in peace and be with her mom."

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What happened the day 'Shy Shy' was killed?

Earlier in the afternoon on April 25, 2009, Chantel called her mom to ask if she could go to a friend's baby shower, which was on Addison Avenue, right around the corner from their house. She had been working all day in the boutique.

"She used to complain I never let her do anything because of the gangs and violence in the area, so I told her she could go," Stephanie said.

"Chantel's boyfriend was involved in gangs, but I was naive to what that meant," she said. "I guess I was ignorant to the fact that something as devastating as this could happen to us."

During the baby shower, a young woman at the party called then 20-year-old Darryene Ware to let him know Chantel's boyfriend and others were present. Ware and Chantel's boyfriend were from rival gangs.

"At around 11 p.m., Shy called me to let me know she was heading home," Stephanie said. "I asked her if she wanted a ride, and she told me she wanted to walk since it was a nice night."

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Moments later, Stephanie said her life changed forever.

"I got a call from her boyfriend, not even a few minutes after we hung up the phone, saying she was shot," Stephanie said. "I rushed over as soon as I could."

Chantel had been shot twice. Once in the hip and once in the cheek.

"The bullet that hit her cheek entered her brain and killed her instantly," Stephanie said tearfully. "We were so scared to even touch her because I didn't want to do anything that would hurt her even more."

Stephanie arrived before the ambulances. It took about 20 minutes for any help to arrive.

"She was gone before they got there," she said. "I lost my only child to gun violence."

At the trial, it was stated Ware and one other person had sprayed the crowd with bullets. Two struck Chantel, killing her, another struck Chantel's cousin Ariana Santos, 15 at the time, in the hand, and another hit a friend, who was 14.

"Bullets don't have names on them, and my daughter found that out the hard way," Stephanie said.

"We knew Darryene personally," she continued. "All of them grew up together on the south side, and he was always around in the community."

Ware later boasted to a witness that Chantel's boyfriend was the original target but said "that bitch was a bonus," Stephanie said.

During the trial, numerous witnesses came forward saying that Ware would brag about killing Chantel.

False testimony from state trooper, re-trial

At the end of the six-day trial in 2012, Ware was convicted of first degree murder.

A Brockton Superior Court judge then sentenced Ware to life in prison without the possibility of parole on the murder charge. The judge also imposed a sentence of 18-20 years from and after the life sentence and 22-25 years concurrent with the sentence on additional charges — armed assault with intent to murder, assault and battery with a dangerous weapon and illegal possession of a firearm.

In 2015, Ware's attorney, Cambridge-based Robert F. Shaw Jr., filed a motion for a new trial, arguing his client was adjudged guilty for a crime he didn't commit in a trial that was fundamentally unfair and a violation of his Constitutional rights. McGuire, the trial judge, disagreed, and denied the motion for a new trial.

But in 2019, 10 years after the murder and seven after Ware's first conviction, Supreme Judicial Court Justice David A. Lowy said Ware would get a new trial after a state trooper gave false testimony and the prosecutor failed to correct it.

The central issue in the appeal revolved around whether Ware ever told police he was picked up at or near a Dunkin' Donuts, "next to the very location where three people were observed jumping into a backyard after the shooting," Lowy wrote in the ruling.

The trooper testified at trial that Ware told police he had been picked up by someone he knew over in the area of that Dunkin' Donuts. But the justice said Ware "pointedly denied on at least four occasions being picked up there despite the police officers' questions and comments suggesting that he was."

Lowy said the trooper's testimony was "blatantly false and pertained to a critical component of the Commonwealth's case." Because of its importance to the prosecution's case, Lowy said the testimony "was likely to have influenced the jury's conclusion," The Enterprise reported at the time.

Darryene Ware remains incarcerated, Stephanie Matiyosus said.

And last year in court, Ware pleaded guilty to charges of manslaughter, armed assault with intent to murder, two counts of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon and carrying a firearm without a license on Feb. 8, 2022.

Judge William F. Sullivan sentenced Ware to 19 to 20 years in state prison on the manslaughter charge. Ware received just over 11 years worth of credit for time served in custody.

"It is so scary to think he could be out on these streets again," Stephanie said.

Getting justice

"My daughter was born in 1993 and was so loved her whole life and even after death," Stephanie said. "Many babies are now named after her."

"Chantel grew up in Brockton, alongside her older sister Tiffany Andrade and six younger brothers," she said. "The family was super close."

"Despite not having the same mom, Tiffany and Chantel were very close," she said. "And she was a great friend to everyone. She helped a lot of people get through some really rough times."

Before attending Brockton High School, Chantel was a student at Hancock Elementary School and West Junior High School, where she was the captain of the cheerleaders.

"Then in high school is where everything started getting bad," Stephanie said.

"She had been bullied a lot," she continued. "She was threatened by gang violence daily and had been jumped by a few girls."

That's when Stephanie said she decided to withdraw Chantel from Brockton High School.

"She applied to the Gateway to College program at Massasoit Community College and she got in," she said.

According to Andrade, "Shy would stand up for the kids who were bullied because she knew what it felt like."

Stephanie and Tiffany both said that since Chantel was gunned down in 2009, they have felt the need to always look over their shoulder.

"I feel like we have to keep one eye open all the time," Stephanie said.

"Learning about the defacing has just reopened the wounds of 2009 all over again," Stephanie said. "Our family and her friends get together every year on important days — her birthday in February, her death anniversary, other events. She didn't deserve it then and she doesn't deserve the way she's being treated now."

"I know the cemetery cleaning crew finished cleaning around 2 p.m. and me and a few friends came to the cemetery at around 4:30 p.m. to grieve my sister when we found the paint, and it was still wet," Andrade said.

Andrade and Stephanie have no idea who might be responsible for the defacing, but hope the person responsible will come forward.

"We just want justice for Shy finally," Andrade said. "I am my sister's voice. I will never give up and I will do whatever it takes to get justice for her."

Staff writer Namu Sampath can be reached at nsampath@enterprisenews.com. Thank you, subscribers. You make this coverage possible. If you are not a subscriber, please consider supporting quality local journalism by purchasing a digital or print subscription to The Brockton Enterprise.

This article originally appeared on The Enterprise: 'She doesn't deserve it': Murdered Brockton girl's grave defaced